


Flower, Species Unknown, Preserved in Amber

by oneironym



Series: Anyder Museum of Eschatology [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: 5.4 Eden spoilers, Angst, Death and moving on, F/F, F/M, Flowers, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29945943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneironym/pseuds/oneironym
Summary: This specimen is among the best-preserved of its kind, and as such, has attracted great attention from both Late Amaurot art historians as well as natural philosophers. Botanists have observed that the blossom does not appear related to any other known species found in pre-Fall Amaurot, though the rarity of plant remains makes it difficult to say for certain if this type can be described as “unique”. Art historians specializing in concepts of the last Hamalrut have also noted that this does not resemble their style of conceptual work, and wonder if it may have been created by another plantcrafter.
Relationships: Gaia/Ryne | Minfilia, Loghrif/Mitron (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: Anyder Museum of Eschatology [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100177
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Flower, Species Unknown, Preserved in Amber

There was scarcely enough of Mitron left, but with the last fibers of his soul, he clung to the grass and the flowers of Eden, his Garden of Hope. A century of stasis had left him yearning for death even as he feared it, but as long as he could fill his heart with visions of his dearest Gaia until the very end, he was satisfied that he could at last move on without regret.

Gaia knelt in the flowers some way off, still young but already with the regal posture Artemis had always remembered. The human fragment - her name was Ryne, wasn’t it - sat close beside her and the two girls fumblingly wove flowers together into crowns for each other. He could not hear what they said to each other over the wind that moved across this land for the first time in a century; gentle as it was, the movement of aether was slowly tearing the last vestiges of his soul away. But he felt the burn of envy nonetheless, and the ardent wish that things had turned out differently.

A sudden stillness, the stasis of Light, sent a coil of fear through Mitron, as he dimly became aware of another presence close beside him. A woman, with hair like the sun and eyes like the crystalline form of Hydaelyn--

“Fear not,” the Light whispered at his side. “I have barely the power that you do.” She smiled, and Mitron ventured to relax, just a little. She was pulling apart just as he was, slipping away little by little back into oblivion.

“You were with the little Hume girl,” Mitron remarked. “Until you were forced out as I was from Gaia.”

The woman closed her impossibly blue eyes and shook her head slowly. “I was with her, but I chose to leave her myself.”

“Why?” Mitron’s voice broke as he asked, “Did you not love her?”

She gazed skywards, at the aether currents now swirling free in the Empty. “I did- I do love her. It’s why I gave her the choice. The chance to grow into her own person."  


The Ascian was silent, watching the two girls. Across the fields, Ryne reached to place a circlet of flowers on Gaia’s head. The stems slipped apart, and the petals scattered around both of them as they laughed together. At last, Mitron sighed, and admitted, “To live in a perfect moment, captured forever…. Even with her, it would simply be another prison of Light in the end, would it not?”

“Yes," the woman replied. "Recall that you are free now, no longer trapped in pain and stasis, but free to change, and to grow. And to fade.” Mitron jumped then, as he felt the woman’s fingers brush against his own, but she was simply resting her aether close to his for comfort.

“Your lord Zodiark’s Darkness… His chaos gives you life and makes it full and worthwhile,” she went on. “Gaia will continue to evolve, her soul becoming fuller. And her love will only grow stronger this lifetime, and you will both be all the more whole when you find each other again.”

Mitron looked over to her, lips parted in surprise. Then his gaze trailed down from the woman’s face down her slender arm to where her hand rested over his among the blades of grass.

“And, if I may be so bold, I firmly believe that Gaia’s heart is in good hands now,” she added with a smile.

When Mitron turned to glance back at Gaia and Ryne, the two girls held hands as they picked their way carefully across one of Eden’s fresh, clear streams. Ryne’s footing faltered, and Gaia was there to steady her.

The Ascian felt his eyes well up with tears, and he took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “She is but a fragment of a soul, but I know my Gaia will help your Ryne to grow and bloom as well.” It would be hard, knowing that she would be with another this lifetime, but Mitron wanted to believe that their parting now would only be temporary. He was free now, free of his ages of agonizing stasis, free to be reborn in another time, free to find his dearest soulmate again. Lord Zodiark would see them both transformed by the turbulent chaos of experience and life… and Artemis and Gaia both would be the better for it. 

Moving her hand away from his, the woman of blinding Light picked a flower from the fields beside her and held it out to Mitron. He reached out to take it, but there was not even enough of him left to feel the petals. Blood red, in curious spirals, a bloom most ancient and yet new upon this shard. He had created the flower for Gaia, once upon a time, when Amaurot still stood and they had both been whole….

“Created from her memories,” the Ascian breathed. “She still remembers. And she will not forget.” Mitron closed his eyes for the last time, a contented smile on his lips, and the wind carried away the droplets of his tears to scatter them across their garden.


End file.
